If you are looking for leadership ideas, Sampark Foundation founder & former HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar* has more than a few tips. The man credited with turning around HCL told Business Today's MindRush conclave leaders are neither born nor created, they have to earn respect to lead every day. He said companies would be dead if CEOs were treated as Gods.

And what is his one tip for sales people? The man who once said he could sell ice to Eskimos had a ready answer: "If you want to be a successful salesperson, start working with the other person (customer), navigate your way in such a way to bring him closer to what you want to sell, rather than offering what you need to sell."

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Nayar enthralled the audience with his successful mantras for management:

1. In life, we have to create the magic. 2. Life is about taking structured chances, rather than getting defeated by reason and logic.3. If you want to innovate, you have to take a series of structured chances.4. Whoever said work with your feet on the ground is wrong. Have one foot firmly planted on the ground, and keep experiment with the other.5. Finally, leadership is about standing for something you believe in with deep-rooted conviction. Think Mahatma Gandhi who tirelessly worked for decades to bring around people to the idea of non-violence to achieve Independence.(*An earlier version of this story had incorrectly mentioned Nayar's designation as Executive Vice-chairman with HCL Technologies. It has now been corrected.)